Petev's unveiling on Tuesday descended into farce when furious Levski followers forced the 38-year-old to remove a shirt bearing the club's logo and leave the room, claiming he was a supporter of fierce rivals CSKA Sofia.
Despite the humiliation, Petev - the winner of consecutive A Football Group titles with league leaders Ludogorets - initially expressed a desire to continue in his new role.
In a second news conference, Petev said: "What happened yesterday is extremely ugly and I would not like to work in such an environment.
"I wanted to work at Levski but I didn't expect that such a thing could happen in the 21st century.
"This is something abnormal. I'm not a criminal; I'm not a thief, but yesterday I felt exactly like that."
It had previously been reported in the Bulgarian media that Petev was a CSKA fan, but he added: "I did not say this. I have no sympathy for another Sofia club."
"The team will be coached by Antoni Zdravkov until the end of the year, at least," Levski owner Todor Batkov said.
